For a projectile starting at origin O, an initial velocity V, and several stationary planets P[n], how would I pre-calculate and store the path it would take without actually stepping through each frame along the curve?
I have some idea of how to do this for a single gravity source (conic section, parametric curves), but how do you blend multiple forces, and thus multiple curves, together?
The idea is to give the player some idea of the trajectory their shot will take, so it doesn't need to reflect the actual path exactly, but the closer the better.